Expression of girdin in human colorectal cancer and its association with tumor progression

BACKGROUND: Girdin is crucial for cellular motility in cancer cell lines and for metastasis in a mouse model. Its expression has been demonstrated in a range of cancers by a few studies and was a prognostic factor in a subset of patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of Girdin expression to clinicopathologic factors in terms of the progression of colorectal cancers and patient survival. DESIGN: This study is a retrospective review of immunohistochemical and clinicopathologic data. SETTING: This study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital/referral center in South Korea. PATIENTS: Tissue microarrays were made from surgical biopsies of 298 patients with colorectal cancer diagnosed between November 1996 and August 2007. Patients were included in the study if their survival time was known and if well-preserved surgical biopsy specimens were available. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcomes measured were Girdin expression and its association in tumor progression and patient survival. RESULTS: Positive staining for Girdin was observed in samples from 66 of 242 patients (27.3%). Expression of Girdin was significantly associated with tumor-node-metastasis stage (p = 0.036), liver metastasis (p = 0.025), and metastases involving the liver and other organs (p = 0.009). However, Girdin expression did not correlate significantly with the overall survival of patients and was not a significant negative prognostic factor for survival by univariate or multivariate analyses. LIMITATIONS: The number of investigated patients and the number of cases with positive staining for Girdin were rather small for the multivariate analysis. The inclusion time frame is long and includes other surgical and medical improvements, which influence a patient's survival. CONCLUSION: The expression of Girdin is related to tumor metastasis but not to survival in human colorectal cancers.